Part of our own discipleship is “paying it forward”: seeing God not only work in us, for our own discipleship, but also seeing him work through us, for others’ discipleship The person and work of Jesus cannot remain as…
In three of the gospel accounts, Jesus, prior to beginning His ministry, was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. For 40 days He went without food and the comforts of life, yet He…
What is Lent? Lent is a forty-day-long journey through daily and sometimes hourly reminders of the gospel because our stomachs are hungry or our hearts are longing for something we seemingly can’t live without. Lent and the celebration of Easter…
I remember when one of the leaders in the Soma Family of Churches asked me if I thought missional communities would be a passing trend. He wasn’t questioning the validity of them, but he did wonder if this was…
The way the Spirit leads us and uses us will vary, but we can all participate in gospel communities on mission. When our missional community was just Mirela and me, mission was pretty simple. We shopped, ate, and recreated locally within…
“Hey, I listened to your podcast.” My fictional podcast had been released for weeks, and I could count on my fingers how many local friends had listened to it. This had been a sensitive source of tears, anger, and…
My wife Bethany and I are suckers for weird artsy puppet shows, so of course we were pumped to see that Fort Worth’s Amphibian Theater was producing just that with Geppetto: Extraordinary Extremities. We grabbed a few friends and…
Episode 64: Taking Small and Big Steps Toward Everyday Discipleship
In this episode of the Saturate Podcast, Brad Watson and Jeff Vanderstelt talk about the tension many believers face: they want to see the way they're being discipled and discipling others transformed into what they see in the Bible (or read…
Episode 051: What’s Essential to an MC? Part 6: Repentance and Faith
In this episode of the Saturate Podcast, Brad Watson and Ben Connelly talk about the importance and power of a community being rooted in the content practices of repenting and believing the gospel. They briefly tackle the topics of repentance…
Episode 048: What’s Essential in an MC? Part 3: Commitment and Freedom
In this episode of the Saturate Podcast, Brad Watson talks with Ben Connelly about the importance of committing to the process of becoming a missional community and a devotion to Christ and one another.
In this episode of the Saturate Podcast, Brad Watson talks with Justin Bindel of Ekklesia Salt Lake City about the challenges and opportunities of leading big missional communities and communities in different contexts.
Episode 036: Leading a Missional Community Without “Superstar” Christians
In this episode of the Saturate Podcast, Brad Watson talks with Jared Pickney about how to lead a missional community that has people with varying levels of belief, maturity, and buy-in.
Guest Post by Justin Kuravackal for Saturate My three year old daughter loved looking at the pictures as I read from her children’s book of Bible stories. She knew the stories so well that in one sleepy moment when I…
If there is one thing I have learned in the transition to missional community, it is “practice the art of assuming nothing”. Never assume that you, your team, your leaders, or your church have it figured out! To make…
Catch part eight of this series here. More important than desiring the fruit of missional ministry is a core conviction that you can’t do ministry another way. At a certain point in the transition to missional communities, you have executed…
Catch part seven of this series here. If you simply report out percentages without stories attached, it is far too easy to forget that you are leading and discipling real people with real problems and the real Jesus is…
Catch part six of this series here! One of the greatest barriers to the vision becoming reality is leaders not providing a simple, understandable way to live out the vision for missional communities. If you follow these steps and…
Communicating the Vision for Missional Communities
Catch part five of this series here. Simply because everyone can articulate the same core values does not mean the vision has taken hold. After working hard to craft a vision for missional communities, you’ve got to start thinking about…
Catch part four of this series here. It isn’t just about having a catchy phrase and some branding but having a fully-formed understanding of why you are making a transition and communicating it in a variety of different ways…
In this episode of The Saturate Podcast, Brad Watson and Jared Pickney discuss the role of leadership, how you know if you're called to be a leader, what a leader does, and why the idea of leadership is so challenging…
Catch part two and part three of the series. This team you build needs to be more captivated that your church would become something, rather than simply excited about implementing a new strategy! After you have created a sense of urgency and convinced…
Catch part one and part two of the series. What is most important is open, honest and convincing dialogue about what is true from the Scriptures and where your church simply doesn’t match up. For change to happen, it helps…
If we miss true friendship, we may be devolving into using people as projects for our own self interests. In the midst of our discussions or training about building, planting, and growing churches, we must guard against slipping into…
It's Labor Day, which means summer officially comes to a close, and we all gear up for the "normal" life that fall brings. The summer has been really busy for us, too, and we want to highlight a few of…
Catch part one in the series HERE. Generally speaking, if you are considering a transition to missional communities in an existing church, there are two routes you can go: top down or bottom up. Each has their own pros and…
In the Story, we watch as Jesus makes disciples, turning fishermen into fishers of men. Then before He ascends into heaven, He gives them the mission to also make disciples who obey His commands. Then over and over in Acts…
Transitioning Your Church to Missional Communities
The vision of The Austin Stone has always been “to be a New Testament Church, existing for the supremacy of the name and purpose of Jesus Christ.” Early on as a church, we were committed to the authority of the Bible…
Leaders, please set aside your objective plans for a moment. Helping people address their inner lives is probably the most important thing you’ll ever do. Many years ago I took my first trip to West Africa. On one of…
I understand the vision, and I understand the principles of missional communities. I’m bought in! But what is my scope and sequence I need to work through to transition our small groups into missional communities? With so many resources, primers,…
Not only did we repent and believe the gospel publicly, we also walked in redemption and healing. We set our sights on learning from Jesus what it meant to follow Him while serving His church. As pastors, we must…
Guest post by Ryan Latour for Saturate A few Saturdays ago I was standing on the sidelines, coaching our U10 soccer team. Standing is probably the wrong word; I was moving up and down the sidelines encouraging and instructing our…
If a missional community leader is not abiding in Jesus, no amount of preparation or equipping can sustain them in leadership. What is the difference between a missional community (MC) that makes it and a missional community (MC) that…
Guest post by Phil Whittall for Saturate I can’t quite remember when I first came across coaching as a leadership concept, but it has been one of those ideas that has slowly invaded my thinking. Last year I read…
Repentance is likely something you are used to suggesting to someone in your church or something you typically do after a fight with your spouse or impatience with your children. Have you ever repented of the darkness in your…
Christ died for you. You are loved, and you are His son or daughter (1 John 3:1). He has empowered you with His Spirit to be His witness (Acts 1:8). He will work in you and through you as…
We’re excited to share a resource that’s been many years in the making. But, How Do We Do It? comes as a result of many years of consulting with churches looking to be faithful to their mandate to make disciples…
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